How Can I Know The Bible Is True?

Yesterday I had the privilege to preach at our church on this very important question.

“How can I know the Bible is true?”

It is a question of foundations, how do we really know. In universities and seminaries this is called epistemology, but I never dropped that word bomb in my sermon. For us, its just real life. How do we know the bible is true, as well anything at all? Can we really have certainty on anything!

My answer is ultimately, YES, we can!

You can listen to my sermon for the full audio on this topic.

You can also keep reading for the main points I’m trying to make.

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There are many ways to tackle this question.

 

I outline the 1) Personal Experience Standard, 2) Just have Faith Approach, 3) The Bible says it Method, 4) Textual Uniqueness, 5) External Evidences, 6) Internal Divine Insights, – all of which have strengths and weaknesses.

The most powerful explanation I have found for certitude on the Truth of Scripture is in its exclusive ability to provide a foundation for Reason and Morality. The Bible alone explains why we can trust our own understanding and our sense of right and wrong.

  • The primordial soup of evolution has no basis to really trust the chemicals in our brain, yet we do.
  • The doubt of the atheists and agonists destroys any confidence to trust their own knowledge, yet they do.
  • Other religions have contradictory foundations for truth, yet they still trust our ability to know.

Only the Bible presents an accurate picture of reality. Carl Henry nails it as he astutely writes,

“But the nature of truth is such that the Christian revelation is formally intelligible to all men; it convincingly overlaps ineradicable elements of every man’s experience, and offers a more consistent, more comprehensive, and more satisfying explanation to the meaning and worth of life than do other views.” (GRA I, 238)

This worldview is one in which logic and reason are rooted in the Image of God.  Genesis 1:27 says in His image he created us, male and female.

The bible shows that God Himself is the standard to judge all things. Col. 2:3 “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Logic has its root in the person of God. The Bible reveals this to us.

The way in which God’s mind works is purely logical; Titus 1:2.- “for God cannot lie”, also in 1 Cor. 14:33 “God is not a God of confusion.”

Without the Bible we would not have a firm foundation from which we could know anything! If we dismiss the bible, how do we account for the logic we depend on for every thought or discussion?

We count on the laws of logic to never change, why is that?

Because God never changes.  Micah 3:6 says, “I the Lord do not change.” James 1:17, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”

We are rational beings having rational thoughts right now because God is who he says he is, and we know this through the Bible.

Morality is equally rooted in the person of God as revealed in the bible.

The bible has revealed a God who is Good and a world that is fallen. Every person and every society of all time has had a sense of right and wrong. Where did this come from? Why do we even seek for truth rather than a lie?

Because we were created in the image of God.

The bible does not ignore the evil in our world or make excuses, but explains it. We see ourselves for who we really are as we read its pages. We find the answer to the problem of evil through the redemptive plan of God to rescue us from that evil. All of this is revealed in the bible. It accurately describes our reality.

What anchors our understanding of Good?

Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good and his love endures forever”. Psalm 136:1 “give thanks to God for he is Good”. In John 10 Jesus is called the “Good Shepard”. And yet we know that we are not Good, which is affirmed in the bible. Jeremiah 17:9 “the heart of man is deceitful and desperately wicked”. Mark 7 talks about the sinfulness of man does not comes from just his mouth, but from his heart.  Romans 3:23 rightly says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

The understanding of right and wrong is not a herd mentality or social construct, but it is written on our hearts by our Creator.

Apart from the bible we have no foundation for the reality that we all live in and accept as truth every moment of every day.

Why is there reason and rationality? Why is there right and wrong? God has revealed why in the bible.

How do we know the bible is true?

If it is not true, we have no foundation to make sense of reality as we know it. Without presuming the truth of the bible, we cannot prove anything else.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” -CS Lewis

 

Christmas: Good News! Great Joy!

Imagine the best news ever was just announced; a cure for cancer was found, peace is reached in the Middle East, world hunger was solved.  There would be dancing in the streets!  Imagine a joy that was indestructible, not connected to a fleeting moment.

This is Christmas!

A clip addressing family holiday preperations from John Piper focuses on the message of the Angel who appeared to the shepherds.  “Good News and Great Joy”.  This embodies the message of Christmas.  @DesiringGod tweeted Piper in powerful statement, “If being Jesus-focused is a killjoy for  Christmas, you don’t know him.”

The truth about Christmas is that it is the greatest news and greatest joy that has ever come to humanity!  It cannot be overstated.  Any substitute for this message is a dim shadow of the truth in this holiday.

Just as I am trying with my family, I challenge your family to focus on Christmas in its truest sense this year.

  • Try to show your family that Christianity is news.
  • Carve out regular times for special activities.
  • Outdo the mythologies of the world by showing that Jesus is 10,000 times more generous and joyful than Santa Claus.

 

A Stunning Visual Approach to C.S. Lewis

If you want a whole new way of seeing the works of C.S. Lewis, check out this Youtube channel I stumbled across recently.  This artist takes readings of classic Lewis works and illustrates them—as they are being read!  To watch the story unfold visually as well as rhetorically adds a new level of depth.  I love how C.S. Lewis unswervingly engages his culture from a Christian worldview.  He has inspired generations with his creativity, Logic, and faithfulness.  If you are seasoned Lewis veteran, or movie-introduced rookie, check out this innovative method to hear and see this classic christian author in action.

For the full Youtube channel with thirteen videos click here: CSLewisDoodle.

Here is a sample of a his videos. (note the playlist selector in the top left, you can choose a topic)

Everyone Accepts Absolutes

“There are no absolutes.”

“Everything is relative.”

Statements similar to these exhibit the height of ignorance. Despite their self-contriditicting nature, (Isn’t “there are no absolutes” a very absolute statement? If “everything is relative,” isn’t this statement relative too?) it is very interesting that people who says silly things like this, actually only say it in reference to a small scope of reality.

These fallacious statements are said only when it comes to ethical, philosophical, and/or religious discussions.

Have you ever thought about that? No one ever applies it to all of reality!

No one ever tries to say “there are no absolutes” when it comes to mathematics! You would be scoffed out of the room if you tried to implement this belief into the scientific method. The Judge never winks at the criminal while in court and assures them that “there are no absolutes”.

Everyone accepts absolutes.  It is impossible to live otherwise.  Everyone accepts that 2+2=5 NEVER happens. Everyone understands that murder and rape are wrong at a fundamental level for all people of all times and places. Everyone lives on a planet that obeys ultra-specific, absolute, laws of physics.

Consider the fine tuning of our universe. The constants that make life sustainable are razor-edge specific. If any one of these constants were off by a fraction, there would be no you, no me, no earth.  Yet, we live because there are absolutes all around us.  This video explaines these powerful facts better than I can.

So I pose a question. If our world is filled with absolutes, where do these absolutes come from?

And even more importantly, Why?

I think you know my answer to these questions. But have you thought them through for yourself?

http://youtu.be/UpIiIaC4kRA

 

 

Amazing Video on Rationality in Nature

The rationality found in nature is a powerful indicator for an Intelligent Designer.

Check out this powerful, wordless, 3:43 video ranging from seashells, sunflower seeds, and dragonfly wings all pointing to the amazing technicality behind our world.

Parents, Require Obedience of Your Children!

sfdsPrinciple: If we want our children to learn how to obey God when they are older, we must require them to obey us as parents now. I have four children, the oldest of whom is 7. This is not mere philosphizing for me, it is real life.

It is inevitable there will be conflict. Conflict between siblings and conflict between child and parent. This season in life is hard. Any parent can attest to this. Deciding which battles to fight is an ongoing state of being. While this state of being is not fun, it is worth doing right. My wife and I are seeking to raise Godly kids. That is no easy task in today’s culture. So I repeat: If we want our children to learn how to obey God when they are older, we must require them to obey us as parents now.

As a parent I am not perfect. I get things wrong. But the principle remains true that if my children learn to respect and obey me now, they will be better suited to obey future authority figures in life, and ultimately God as the final authority figure. Unfortunately most parents are not requiring obedience from their children. It is easier to pacify their children in the moment than deal with the long term commitment of building obedience.

John Piper writes an excellent article addressing believing parents and how they need to require obedience.

“The defiance and laziness of unbelieving parents I can understand. I have biblical categories of the behavior of the spiritually blind. But the neglect of Christian parents perplexes me. What is behind the failure to require and receive obedience? I’m not sure. But it may be that these nine observations will help rescue some parents from the folly of laissez-faire parenting.”

Please read the full article as Piper unpacks each of these nine points with biblical passages and practical application. If you are a parent, or hope to be one in the future, it is worth your 5+ minutes!  Click it here: Parent, Require Obedience of Your Children.

1. Requiring obedience of children is implicit in the biblical requirement that children obey their parents.

2. Obedience is a new-covenant, gospel category.

3. Requiring obedience of children is possible.

4. Requiring obedience should be practiced at home on inconsequential things so that it is possible in public on consequential things.

5. It takes effort to require obedience, and it is worth it.

6. You can break the multi-generational dysfunction.

7. Gracious parenting leads children from external compliance to joyful willingness.

8. Children whose parents require obedience are happier.

9. Requiring obedience is not the same as requiring perfection.

“Parents, you can do this. It is a hard season. I’ve spent more than sixty percent of my life in it. But there is divine grace for this, and you will be richly rewarded.” – John Piper

 

Reformation Trust Publishing – A Treasure Trove of Free Resources

Fill your Kindle or iPad  with great theology for FREE. I stumbled upon this site after a recommendation from my pastor of a book that was being offered free. As I started clicking around I found many great topics that real people have real questions about. These are answered in free downloadable books.

Thank you Reformation Trust Publishing (click for the link) for not being all about the money, but caring more about the dissemination of Truth.

My pastor noted that, John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion, Doctrine, and Doxology is currently free. I don’t believe this is always free, but it is now so grab it. 

Also all of the “Crucial Questions Series” books are available totally free. There are many topics addresses that you may be interested in. Here is the tip of the iceberg of series titles:

  • Who is Jesus?
  • Does Prayer Change Things?
  • Can I Trust the Bible?
  • Does God Control Everything?
  • Can I be Sure I am Saved?
  • What is the Church, Baptism, the Lord’s Supper? (3 separate books)
  • What is the Trinity?
  • and many more…

Here is an Amazon Books link that shows, in order of price, downloads offered by this publisher. Also you can simply search for Reformation Trust in the Amazon search field and you will find these. Note: Amazon has a lot of their offerings, but not all of them. You will find more on their website and can download them (still free) there with a free account. I prefer amazon personally…

While all the books on this site are not free, (they still have to pay the bills too) I’m very happy to see many that are. So I wanted to make you aware of this resource if you have any of these questions rolling around in your mind. Allow these readings to push you not to knowing more theology, but to a relationship with the author of Truth himself, Jesus Christ.

 

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To Get You Thinking: 12 Great Quotes about Apologetics

Thank you Poached Egg for this compilation of inspiring quotes. See the original article at Pulling Back the Curtains: 12 Apologetics Quotes.

 

 

  1. Christian Apologetics QuotesBelief doesn’t create truth. Unbelief doesn’t destroy truth. Christian faith goes beyond reason but not against reason. —Paul E. Little (from, Know Why You Believe)
  2. Christian Apologetics QuotesAs humans, we are limited in our search for truth by our fallen nature, which can make truth difficult to accept and apply. Knowing truth is not just the product of the intellect but also of the will and the personality. Truth begins not with observation, but with a direction to look and a willingness to see.  —Mark Cosgrove  (from, Foundations of Christian Thought)
  3. Christian Apologetics QuotesThe Bible says we should “always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). Can you help someone work through the “Why does God allow suffering?” question? Can you help a university student see that science has not, will not and cannot disprove God? Do you know why it is logically impossible that all religions could lead to God? We need to be ready to answer these because the Bible commands us to do so. As Christians we have a tremendous heritage we have inherited from those who have taken 1 Peter 3:15 seriously.—Jon Morrison (from, 5 Reasons To Rethink Apologetics)
  4. Christian Apologetics QuotesIt is a hard thing to look at the truth when it runs contrary to what you’ve always believed. The experience is like pulling back the curtains in a dimly lit room and looking out the window to see what’s really outside. When your eyes are used to artificial light, the bright sunlight is almost blinding; your eyes may sting and even water at the brightness, and the temptation is to turn away to the more comfortable dimness. But consider: the electricity that powers artificial light is produced by fossil fuel, made from plants that long ago took in the light of the sun—or from windmills, powered by air currents moved by the sun’s heat—or from solar panels, absorbing the sun’s rays. We may think we are in control of the light when we can turn it on or off by a flick of a switch—but ultimately that tame, comfortable indoor light has its source in the wild heart of the sun. Just so with the truth. Whatever we know of what is right and good and true comes from God, the Author of all Truth—whether we know it or not. But His truth is so much greater than our little partial glimpses of the truth that it can be blinding. —Dr. Holly Ordway (from, Not God’s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith)
  5. Christian Apologetics QuotesAny and every other belief you hold, about anything whatsoever, if it is to be taken seriously, if it is to be of any value or worth anyone’s consideration, it must have in its favor more than your emotions, personal history or external circumstantial factors. It must have reasons—Clint Roberts (from the article, Believing for No Reason)
  6. Christian Apologetics QuotesI assert that nothing ever comes to pass without a cause. What is self-existent must be from eternity, and must unchangeable: but as to all things that begin to be, they are not self-existent, and therefore must have some foundation of their existence without themselves. – Jonathan Edwards
  7. Christian Apologetics QuotesAs parents, we are the folks who will have the most repeated contact with our children; we are the ones who can have the most impact (good or bad). This is the simple truth for all of us who are raising kids in the church. We have to become the best Christian Case Makers our kids know so we can respond quickly to their concerns and questions. As parents, we are still the first line of Christian defense. —J. Warner Wallace (from the article, Parents Are Still the First Line of Defense)
  8. Christian Apologetics QuotesI suggest you completely ban the phrase “leap of faith” from your vocabulary.  Biblical faith is based on knowledge, not wishing or blind leaps.  Knowledge builds confidence and confidence leads to trust.  The kind of faith God is interested in is not wishing.  It’s trust based on knowing, a sure confidence grounded in evidence. – Greg Koukl
  9. Christian Apologetics QuotesNaturalism requires one to believe humans are special for no reason at all, or else to deny that we are special at all. Either option is odd. Naturalism is a strange belief. It’s one thing to hold that it is possibly true (though that strains credulity beyond my personal reach). It’s another thing altogether — and one can only pause to contemplate what might be the reason for it — for anyone to think it’s definitely true, or almost certainly true.—Tom Gilson (from, Naturalism is a Strange Belief)
  10. Christian Apologetics QuotesSincerity does not trump truth. After all, one can be sincerely wrong. But sincerity is indispensable to any truth we wish others to believe. There is something winsome, even irresistible, about a life lived with conviction. I am reminded of the Scottish philosopher and skeptic, David Hume, who was recognized among a crowd of those listening to the preaching of George Whitefield, the famed evangelist of the First Great Awakening:  “I thought you didn’t believe in the Gospel,” someone asked.  “I do not,” Hume replied. Then, with a nod toward Whitefield, he added, “But he does.” —Larry Taunton (from, Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity)
  11. Christian Apologetics QuotesSkeptics must provide more than alternative theories to the Resurrection; they must provide first-century evidence for those theories. —Gary Habermas (quoted in, I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist)
  12. Christian Apologetics QuotesThere’s a fine line, though, between being someone who questions and being someone who refuses to believe any answers-a true skeptic. In fact, I don’t think many skeptics actually question anything. They may phrase their challenges as questions, but their heart is set on rejection and disproving, not asking. To truly question something is to query it and to ask about it for the sake of greater and deeper understanding. This may lead to evidence that disproves or to propositions worthy of rejecting, but the heart behind it is to learn, to know. And in this sense, we ought to question everything. And I do mean everything… — Barnabas Piper (from, The unskeptical questioner)

 

Your Pain is not Meaningless

Whether secretly or publicly, some of you may be going through some of the hardest days of your life at this very moment. I know friends and family that are hurting. Life if full of pain. But Take Heart! Be encouraged! If you believe the Bible like I do, then it is not for nothing!

“Not only is all your affliction momentary. Not only is all your affliction light in comparison to eternity and the glory there. But all of it is totally meaningful.” -John Piper

This is the opening phrase in the audio insert of Piper in the below video. If you are in the middle of difficult circumstances this song and clip is for you. Really, this is for all of us, because hard times are no respecter of persons. The song is powerful but don’t miss the audio clip of Piper at 3:23 which is a selection for his 2013 sermon “Do Not Lose Heart”.

2 Cor. 4:16-18  Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

“Though You Slay Me” – Shane and Shane

I come, God, I come
I return to the Lord
The one who’s broken
The one who’s torn me apart
You struck down to bind me up
You say You do it all in love
That I might know You in Your suffering

Though You slay me
Yet I will praise You
Though You take from me
I will bless Your name
Though You ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

My heart and flesh may fail
The earth below give way
But with my eyes, with my eyes I’ll see the Lord
Lifted high on that day
Behold, the Lamb that was slain
And I’ll know every tear was worth it all

Though You slay me
Yet I will praise You
Though You take from me
I will bless Your name
Though You ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

Though tonight I’m crying out
Let this cup pass from me now
You’re still all that I need
You’re enough for me
You’re enough for me

Though You slay me
Yet I will praise You
Though You take from me
I will bless Your name
Though You ruin me
Still I will worship
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need
Sing a song to the one who’s all I need

Worldview Summery Chart

Click on this informative chart to get a clear(er) understanding of the differing worldviews. Many times we hear these terms thrown around incorrectly. So here is a chance to see them side by side with their definitions.

(click the graphic for a zoomable view.)

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